Fable III PC system requirements revealed

Fable III is set for its PC debut later this year and today IGN has posted up word that the hardware system requirements for developer Lionhead Studios' latest fantasy RPG have been revealed. You can check out both the minimal and recommended system specs for the game after the jump. As we have reported earlier this year, the Fable III PC port will be released on May 17 and will include a new Hardcore difficulty mode. The game will also be the...

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New Nvidia GeForce beta drivers boost Dragon Age 2 PC performance

If you have been playing the PC version of Dragon Age 2 and have wanted the performance to be better, then you might want to pay attention to this. Graphics chip maker Nvidia has released some new GeForce beta drivers that, among other things, greatly increases the performance of BioWare's recent fantasy RPG. The 270.51 drivers increase perfomance for that game by up to 516 percent with a GeForce GTX 580 graphics card and up to 461 percent with...

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Rumors of massive layoffs and studio shut downs hit Sony Online

Sony Online Entertainment, known primarily for its MMO game titles, could be in the middle of a huge restructuring. Kotaku is reporting via unnamed sources that the company has shut down three of its five development studios based in Seattle, Tuscon and Denver. In addition the rumors claims the company has also laid off significant numbers of team members at its two remaining studios, San Diego and Austin. Kotaku claims in its article that the layoffs...

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TUROK II

Turok II is one of my personal favorite first person shooting games. This game is full of new weapons, many puzzles and mazes to solve. This game is extremely difficult and challenging, especially in the begining when you start out without cheats and just have a knife and a bow. Of course, sometimes it’s fun to dominate the game without spending a lot of time which is where video game cheats comes into play. For the most part though, the cheats,...

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Super Meat Boy's Super Meat World level portal is only days away

Super Meat Boy's two man dev team at Team Meat have previously announced plans to launch a portal for the PC version that would allow people to download new user made levels for the hit arcade action game. Now the Team Meat Twitter page is reporting that the portal, Super Meat World, is just days away. The above screenshot is from Super Meat Boy's chapter viewer. According to the tweets from Team Meat, the portal will launch with over five chapters...

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Ultima 4 downloads and fan projects pulled by EA; Mythic project to blame?

Back in the 1990s, the fantasy RPG Ultima 4 from developer Origin Systems was released for free from a few selected and official sources. A lot of folks believed this made the game freeware. However in fact it doesn't as the game's current owner Electronic Arts still owns the rights to the entire Ultima game franchise. Now word comes from the fan site Ultima Aiera that EA has been sending cease and desist letters to web sites hosting the Ultima...

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Back to the Future Episode 3 released

As promised earlier this week, Telltale Games has now released the third episode for Back to the Future for the PC and Mac as the developer continues its "sequel" to the classic sci-fi movie trilogy. This third episode is titled Citizen Brown and as you can see in the above screenshot Marty McFly has traveled to an alternate 1986 where Hill Valley has been taken over by a fascist version of his long time friend Doc Brown. As we reported last week...

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StarCraft II to officially launch in China April 6; open beta begins

StarCraft II is now officially invading the many cyber cafes in China. The sci-fi RTS game from developer Blizzard and its Chinese publisher NetEase has now entered into open beta testing in that country and that it will get its official launch just a few days later on April 6. The game will be sold in 30 day increments for the Chinese market which gives players access to both the multiplayer modes and the single player campaign for the equivalent...

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Rage to get prose novel adapation

Just a couple of weeks before Rage is released you will be able to check out an adaptation of id Software's next first person shooter in convenient prose form. Publisher Bethesda Softworks announced that a novel version of the post-apocalyptic game will be released via Del Rey on August 30. The game itself is due out on September 13. The novel goes deeper into the storyline for Rage and is being written by Matt Costello who is a long time collaborator...

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Rayman Forever pops up on GoG.com

GoG.com brings us another classic Ubisoft game to its growing PC game DRM-free download library today. This time its Rayman Forever, a revamped version of the first ever game in Ubisoft's long running side scrolling action-adventure game series. The 1999 released game, featuring a character that has hands and feet but no arms and legs, comes three years after the first version of Rayman, the creation of the acclaimed designer Michel Ancel. This...

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War Inc Battle Zone Closed Beta Giveaway at Big Download

Last week we posted up an interview with the COO of Online Warmongers as we chatted about its upcoming free-to-play shooter War Inc Battle Zone. The game is entering its new closed beta testing period in preparation for its launch this summer. Today Big Download is offering its readers a chance to play in the closed beta test. This beta test is being handled a bit differently than others we have reported on. Online Warmongers has spots for a whopping...

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Full details on Lee-Sin, League of Legends’ upcoming champion

Good one Riot Games! You really got me with that prank—for a second there, I thought you’d actually confirmed plans to release of the Blind Monk, after years of denying he would ever be revived. Whazzat? It’s not April Fools’ Day? Then…it’s true! Lee-Sin, better known to old-school League of Legends fans as the Blind Monk, is finally resurfacing after a two year hiatus. Come check out the classic champion’s new moves, including a roundhouse kick...

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A New Beginning preview

As all right-thinking people know, there are two reasons not to worry about the environment. If the babbling of fools is correct, the world will end in 2012 anyway. If not, television has long since taught us that if things get too bad, Gaia, spirit of the Earth, will send five magic rings to five special young people, and Captain Planet will clear up our mess. It wouldn’t lie about something like that, right? There is of course a third possibility....

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Mass Effect 2 The Arrival DLC will have Shepard fighting alone

Commander Shepard will be flying solo for the final slice of Mass Effect 2 DLC. The Arrival will see you journey to the very edge of charted space to help out an operative with early intelligence on an imminent Reaper invasion, but none of your companions will tag along for the ride. It looks as though Bioware are planning a challenging end to the last piece of Mass Effect 2 DLC with plenty of combat and not much conversation. Joystiq have taken...

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Just Cause boss says hiring hackers and better games will beat PC piracy

Better PC games and a better relationship with hackers are the key to fighting piracy, according to Christofer Sundberg, the boss of Just Cause creators, Avalanche. Sundberg believes that common anti-piracy measures like DRM “punishes the people who have actually paid for the game,” and says that hiring hackers is a good way to discover new talent, admitting that “50 percent of the people that work for me come from a hacker background.” Sundberg...

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Heroes of Newerth’s latest champion, Tremble, will shake up the lanes

Heroes of Newerth players suffering from entomophobia (fear of insects) are about to get a nasty surprise: Tremble, the seventy-sixth hero to join HoN’s ragtag bunch, is sure to give hapless noobs nightmares. Combine the horrifying appearance of Warhammer 40K’s Tyranid Lictor with the creepy burrowing of StarCraft II’s equally horrifying Zerg, and you’ll understand why heroes should be terrified when the ground starts rumbling beneath their feet....

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Duke Nukem Forever delayed to June 14

Duke Nukem Forever is still coming, after 14 years of development. But it's apparently not coming on May 3 anymore. In a new trailer (which you can see after the jump) Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford is pretty much blindsided with the reveal that the long awaited first person shooter is now due for release on June 14 in the US (with a June 10 release date in other parts of the world). While no reason was given for the delay we actually think...

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F1 2011 due out in September

Codemasters' newest racing sim game franchise will get a second installment in September. MCV reports that F1 2011 will be released on September 23 for the PC and other platforms. Since that's on a Friday it's likely that the game will be released in the US a few days earlier or later. Codemasters first released its first PC Formula 1-based racing game, F1 2010, last fall. Despite some issues with the game's AI that were fixed via patches later...

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Rift devs get help from a hacker and plug security flaws

Since launch, Trion World’s new MMO, Rift, has been under constant attack from hackers trying to steal accounts. Trion Worlds have been fighting back against the attacks with the help of a benevolent hacker who spotted a huge security flaw in Rift’s system, and contacted the developers to help them fix the problem. Trion Worlds have since launched a “one-two punch” of security updates over the weekend to help protect player accounts. The hacker...

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Prey 2 inspired by Blade Runner and Mirror’s Edge

The first details of Prey 2 suggest that it will be very different to the original, though equally as mad. It will be a single player only, open world shooter set in a run-down future metropolis. The main character will be a free-running Sheriff with the unlikely name of “Killian Samuels,” and the game promises to have “the moving scheme from Mirror’s Edge, the freedom of Mass Effect and the fire fights of Killzone 2.” GameReactor magazine have...

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Duke Nukem Forever multiplayer replaces flag with capturable, slappable women

Duke Nukem Forever’s “Capture the Babe” CTF variant requires you to abduct a woman to score. The mode is revealed in the latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine US where they explain that Gearbox will give the option to give her a “slap” if she “freaks out” as you drag her across the map. WTF? Read on for the details and to hear Gearbox’s CEO’s attitude towards Duke’s controversy-bating elements. Speaking to the magazine, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford...

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Crysis 2 review

An alien dropship hums overhead, trailing otherworldly ruby-red fumes from its engines. The patrol craft spits shining metal pods at the earth as it passes. Embedded in the city street asphalt, the pods pop like pressurized eggs; three raptor-legged, inquisitive Ceph soldiers spring out. They can’t see me, but I’m a mere 20 feet away, invisible, steel feet perched still atop a shipping crate. I’m holding the wrong gun for this—a microwave gun would’ve...

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EA manager says $60 games are “exploitative

General manager at EA Ben Cousins has been talking about the benefits of the free-to-play model ahead of the launch of the Battlefield Play4Free open beta in April. He says that he believes the $60 pricing on games is “exploitative,” and considers the full priced game market to be “a really harsh business model.” Cousins was talking to Rock Paper Shotgun about the controversies surrounding microtransactions in free-to-play games when he said “I...

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Dragon Age 2 DRM debate continues

Last week there was a lot of "he said, she said" accusations about the PC version of Dragon Age 2's DRM set up. A self-appointed watchdog web site called Reclaim Your Game claims that the PC port of BioWare's RPG sequel had used SecuROM without revealing that fact to consumers. BioWare reps denied that, stating that the PC version used a release control software made by the same company that also made SecuROM but that the two were not the same product. Now...

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More changes in membership for PC Gaming Alliance

A few weeks ago, Big Download was the first to report that two founding members of the PC Gaming Alliance, Microsoft and Nvidia, had departed the non-profit organization. Now it seems that another founding member is reducing its involvment in the PCGA and yet another member has left entirely. According to the PCGA's members web page, founding member Dell is now listed as a "Contributing" member of the organization rather than its previous role...

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The Precursors review

You start The Precursors in a suspiciously corridor-shaped jungle, shooting plant monsters. Two marines with the same voice-actor nag you to hurry up, even after they’ve been melted by plant spit. This is not a polished game. Depending on who you talk to in this FPS-RPG, your name is Tris, or Treece, or Trees Creighton and you’re a soldier in the Amarnian army. Actually, wait, an ace space pilot. Or a mercenary. A bounty hunter, even. Someone somewhere...

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White Gold review

“Zombies? That’s ridiculous. It was giant cougars that killed him.” That’s my CIA handler. The one who’s supposed to be keeping a cool head in the midst of anarchy. The one I’m relying on to help me with my mission, to stop the flow of poisonous cocaine out of Colombia that’s killing rappers and starlets. The record company hired me, you see. White Gold is about as close to an open-world RPG as it is to an FPS. You level up, have an inventory to...

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Sony: PS3 is beating Xbox 360... in France

PS3 is leading Xbox 360 in terms of hardware and software sales in France, according to a new Sony announcement based on data from GfK. According to a Google translation of a Gamekyo article, PS3 has surpassed three million sales in the country, versus Xbox 360's 2.3 million. On the software front, PS3 games have generated €418 million (equivalent to eight million units sold), versus €337 million for Wii games and €239 million for Xbox 360 titles. CVG...

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Homefront: Review round-up

The vast majority of the world's Homefront review scores are now in - and make for interesting reading material. Alongside CVG's 8.6/10 review, UK mags PSM3 and Xbox World 360 both scored the game in the 80s. Meanwhile, Official Xbox Magazine US gave the game an impressive 8/10, celebrating the title's "polished, engaging multiplayer modes". PC Gamer went for a 79% score, whilst UK lads' mag Zoo plumped for the highest rating of any major UK...

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Shattered Horizon Patch 1.3.0.53 Released

Shattered Horizon was an original space combat first person shooter that was developed by the creators of 3D Mark benchmarks, Futuremark. Sadly, it didn’t appeal to most PC gamers but the company is still supporting it. An update for it is now available that adds the Last Stand pack, a free expansion that includes single player, online co-op and a new game mode. The game will auto-update itself the next time you run it! SHATTERED HORIZON 1.3.0.53 •...

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